Which installation type do you want to use: RPM or
containerized? Both installations provide a working OpenShift Container Platform
environment, but you might have a preference for a particular method of
installing, managing, and updating your services.

Which identity provider do you use for
authentication?
If you already use a supported identity provider, it is a best practice to
configure OpenShift Container Platform to use that identity provider during
advanced installation.

Installation Methods

As of OpenShift Container Platform 3.9, the quick installation method is deprecated. In a
future release, it will be removed completely. In addition, using the quick
installer to upgrade from version 3.7 to 3.9 is not supported.

Both the quick and advanced installation methods are supported for development
and production environments. If you want to quickly get OpenShift Container Platform up and
running to try out for the first time, use the quick installer and let the
interactive CLI guide you through the configuration options relevant to your
environment.

For the most control over your cluster’s configuration, you can use the advanced
installation method. This method is particularly suited if you are already
familiar with Ansible. However, following along with the OpenShift Container Platform
documentation should equip you with enough information to reliably deploy your
cluster and continue to manage its configuration post-deployment using the
provided Ansible playbooks directly.

If you install initially using the quick installer, you can always further tweak
your cluster’s configuration and adjust the number of hosts in the cluster using
the same installer tool. If you wanted to later switch to using the advanced
method, you can create an inventory file for your configuration and carry on
that way.

Sizing Considerations

Determine how many nodes and pods you require for your OpenShift Container Platform cluster.
Cluster scalability correlates to the number of pods in a cluster environment.
That number influences the other numbers in your setup. See
Cluster
Limits for the latest limits for objects in OpenShift Container Platform.

Environment Scenarios

This section outlines different examples of scenarios for your OpenShift Container Platform
environment. Use these scenarios as a basis for planning your own
OpenShift Container Platform cluster, based on your sizing needs.

Moving from a single master cluster to multiple masters after installation is
not supported.

Single Master and Node on One System

OpenShift Container Platform can be installed on a single system
for a development environment only.
An all-in-one environment is not considered a production environment.

Single Master and Multiple Nodes

The following table describes an example environment for a single
master (with etcd installed on the same host)
and two
nodes:

Host Name

Infrastructure Component to Install

master.example.com

Master, etcd, and node

node1.example.com

Node

node2.example.com

Single Master, Multiple etcd, and Multiple Nodes

The following table describes an example environment for a single
master,
three
etcd
hosts, and two
nodes:

Host Name

Infrastructure Component to Install

master.example.com

Master and node

etcd1.example.com

etcd

etcd2.example.com

etcd3.example.com

node1.example.com

Node

node2.example.com

Multiple Masters Using Native HA with Co-located Clustered etcd

The following describes an example environment for three
masters with co-located clustered etcd,
one HAProxy load balancer, and two
nodes
using the native HA method:

Host Name

Infrastructure Component to Install

master1.example.com

Master (clustered using native HA) and node and clustered etcd

master2.example.com

master3.example.com

lb.example.com

HAProxy to load balance API master endpoints

node1.example.com

Node

node2.example.com

Multiple Masters Using Native HA with External Clustered etcd

The following describes an example environment for three
masters,
one HAProxy load balancer, three external clustered etcd
hosts, and two
nodes
using the native HA method:

Host Name

Infrastructure Component to Install

master1.example.com

Master (clustered using native HA) and node

master2.example.com

master3.example.com

lb.example.com

HAProxy to load balance API master endpoints

etcd1.example.com

Clustered etcd

etcd2.example.com

etcd3.example.com

node1.example.com

Node

node2.example.com

Stand-alone Registry

You can also install OpenShift Container Platform to act as a stand-alone registry using the
OpenShift Container Platform’s integrated registry. See
Installing
a Stand-alone Registry for details on this scenario.

RPM Versus Containerized

An RPM installation installs all services through package management and
configures services to run within the same user space, while a containerized
installation installs services using container images and runs separate services
in individual containers.